Come take a look at Jaleta's writing process today in her blog tour stop here :)Let's give her a warm welcome and don't forget to sign up for the rafflecopter at the end of the post!

Peeking Inside My Writing Process or Where Do My Ideas Come From?Peeking inside my writing process is like stirring around in a algae-choked pond. You never know what's down there that might surface. In Dark Dancer, the Summerlands are ruled by the Seligh Lords, each Archon controlling his own demesne. Let me explain where this came from and what it means.Somewhere down in the recesses of my brain, in the very deep dark dungeons, is a place where thoughts and random things are stored. They kind of ooze and jiggle and merge and do all sorts of things in that dark space that I really don't want to know about. I let my subconscious play with them because I know, eventually, something shiny and bright and new is going to float to the top. In this sludge, my teenage devouring of all things Shakespeare was having a party with all the fairy-tales and folk stories I've also read over the years. I was the devourer when it came to those kinds of books. I still read them. Add in a good dose of historical trivia, some archaic words that no one uses anymore, and a fascination with mechanical things and weird architecture, and you have the setting for my version of fairyland.The fairy world is split into three general areas. The Summerlands are where the Seligh Lords rule. This is the more typical fairyland setting, closer to Titania's court than Tinkerbell's. I even have a character based off Queen Titania who lives in a magical forest glade and revels with her forest subjects - dryads, satyrs, fauns, and the like. The other Seligh Lords have taken the magic of their land and bound it to themselves. The ruler of each demesne, an archaic form of domain that is pronounced pretty much the same way but is way cooler to write, is called an Archon. I stole that from the ancient Greek city-states. Their rulers were called Archons. The Archons use their power to bind anyone with any kind of magical gift to their demesne. That pool of power is used to create steampunk technology. So they have machines, but the power source for them is not fossil fuels or solar energy or mechanical energy, but rather magical crystals that can store the Archon's power.And yes, they have ships that fly. Because I fell in love with the idea of fairy elves flying around in wooden sailing ships. One of them is a renegade, a pirate based off Errol Flynn's Sinbad character. Because I've always had a thing for Sinbad.I hope you enjoyed this romp through my subconscious. It can sometimes be a very scary place, but for this story, it's all about adventure and romance. And flying ships powered by magic crystals and crewed by elves, not the tree-dwelling cookie bakers or the winged fairy kind, but more like Tolkein's elves. Sort of.You can find a complete list of all my work at http://www.jaletac.comDark Dancer -

Just in reading the basic information here, I see that this is a fantasy novel that includes fairies. I was wondering which mythology you drew from for your fey, and what sort of special spins that you placed on your characters, to make them unique?

They're a blend of Tolkein's elves, the fae from Celtic mythology, and Peter Pan, with a good dash of contemporary fantasy elves from modern books thrown in. Plus an Errol Flynn lookalike, with pointy ears.

My characters seem to take on a life of their own. When they start dictating the story, I know it's ready to edit and publish. My subconscious works that way.

Thanks for asking! Please enter the giveaway at http://jaletaclegg.blogspot.com/2014/08/dark-dancer-blog-tour-and-giveaway.html Good luck!

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Justin Egger

8/27/2014 08:46:19 am

It sounds interesting with a great base to work off of. Lately, though, I have been noticing an increasing trend in violent sexism in fantasy. (I feel like it used to be more subtle.) Some people feel that the constant abuse received by women in books like Game of Thrones is more realistic. Others take the Name of the Wind approach and women practically don't exist where matters of consequence are concerned. Others, like the Dresden Files (yeah, it's modern but it has many fantasy aspects) seem to have no trouble displaying women in places of great power. One of the reasons I feel that World of Warcraft (yeah, I just mentioned a video game in a writer's post... sorry) was so successful with women was because it completely threw out every last bit of sexism. Gender played no role in stats, and murderous enemies were just as likely to be female as they were male.

If you read any of my work, you'll find I'm an equal opportunity writer - women and men are just as likely to be the heroes AND the villains. I write strong women and weak women, strong men and weak men. People are people and you're going to find good and bad in everyone in varying degrees. I let my characters be who they are. Gender is just one more identifier for them, not usually a defining one.

I played WoW once. MMOs are just not my thing, although pen-n-paper RPGs used to be and adventure games still are. My biggest objection to games like WoW is that I have to dress like a slut if I want to play a female character. What's up with the sexed-up armor? Why can't I wear a long-sleeve, fully covered outfit like the men get? That's the options I'm still waiting for.

Don't get me started on the problems with the characters in King of Towers over on armorgames.com If I want to look at extremely endowed fantasy Barbies in skimpy armor, I'll watch Kull the Conqueror...

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